Shouldn't the focus be on central banks suppressing interest rates?

Shouldn't the focus be on central banks suppressing interest rates?

Posted by Hayden Donnelly19tp on December 09, 2016

Wouldn't the housing bubble and malinvestment (away from productive assets as you say) be cooled off more effectively - getting to the root - if you stopped central banks artificially suppressing interest rates. (Keynsian economics). If the interest rate were allowed to rise closer to the market value it would be harder to justify taking a large loan for speculative purposes and only entrepreneurs with plans to invest that money in the most productive (income producing) uses would be able to justify this. This would lower housing prices in a superior way to hour proposed tax policy which, in my opinion would be a cost that just get passed on to the "consumer" which in this case would be people who pay rent... By reducing this harmful, fixing of interest rated, it would free up capital for productive use while encouraging people to save more and consume less on frivilous things --> this is how you create long term prosperity for all, especially the everyday, hard working New Zealanders - If interest rates go down, it should be due to an oversupply of willing lenders (savers), NOT because a central bank mandated that this is the new interest rate! HOWEVER, I do also agree that taxation should be as equal as possible across the board for all asset classes in order to prevent unequal allocation - but imo this would be addressed just fine with a standardised rate of tax across the board for all income e.g capital gains. Thoughts? In general you should try to find the hidden DE-regulation that fixes the problem. Thanks.